Task Force Wants State To Oversee Sober Homes

The Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force Proviso Group discusses solutions to patient brokering in the addiction treatment industry on Dec. 19, 2016.

Peter Haden
/ WLRN

Originally published on December 28, 2016 4:20 pm

A task force is making recommendations to state legislators for cracking down on fraud in the addiction recovery industry.

The Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force is putting the finishing touches on a report headed to lawmakers in Tallahassee. It outlines strategies to better regulate drug treatment providers and sober homes.

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Among the recommendations: Give the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) the ability to license and inspect commercial sober homes.

“If we’ve got legislative authority, these are things that we could get done,” said John Bryant, assistant secretary for substance abuse and mental health at DCF.

But not without a significant increase in funding. The task force says that money should come from increased fees from businesses in the industry – sober homes and drug treatment centers – not from taxpayers.

Bryant says this would be a good step to curtailing out-of-control corruption in the industry.

“In terms of the number of disreputable folk that are doing this business – the patient brokering and, in effect, the human trafficking – it’s really incredible,” Bryant said.

Republican State Rep. Bill Hager of Boca Raton is drafting a bill aimed at stopping corruption in the recovery industry. He said he’ll submit his bill before the Legislature meets in March.

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The man leading the fight against unscrupulous sober homes has a message for state legislators.

“When the appropriations process comes up, please keep us in mind,” said Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg at a meeting with the Palm Beach County Legislative Delegation in Boca Raton Tuesday.

Aronberg leads the county’s Sober Home Task Force - created in July 2016 with a $275,000 appropriation from the state legislature.

A new law could be in the works to regulate so-called “sober homes” in Florida.

At a meeting attended by hundreds of residents in Lake Worth, Assistant State Attorney Al Johnson said that he is part of a task force created to crack down on unscrupulous addiction recovery residences in Florida. The facilities are not currently required to be certified or licensed and the task force will propose legislation to change that.